How Aaron Sorkin is taking on the life of Steve Jobs

David Konow, 17th November 2012

Ever since the life story rights of Steve Jobs were acquired by Sony, Aaron Sorkin, the writer for The West Wing, Moneyball and The Social Network, was the studio’s number one choice to pen the script.

After mulling it all over for some time, Sorkin agreed to take on the life of Jobs, and you can’t blame him for hesitating, because Steve was a really complicated guy that’s not easy to capture on paper.

Now Sorkin has revealed how he’ll write the biopic of Jobs, and his approach to the screenplay is a very bold idea. It’s only going to be three scenes that are half an hour long each. I’m not exactly sure how this idea is going to work, and it’s certainly a very risky approach, although perhaps if you look at it like a stage play this could actually pay off.

As Sorkin told the Hollywood Reporter, the film will be "three scenes, and three scenes only, that all take place in real time." Sorkin added that the scenes are "all set right before three major product launches." The products are the original Mac, which came out in 1984, the NeXT Cube, which came out in 1990, and the iPod, which came out in 2001.

Considering the Steve Jobs story covers a lot of ground, you’d think you would want more than three scenes, and more about his life from at least young adulthood to the end, but maybe this very minimalist approach could work. Again, if this were done as a stage play it wouldn’t seem so radical an idea, but for the long awaited movie on the life of Steve Jobs? It’s a big gamble, but if Sorkin can pull it off, it could be a really groundbreaking approach to telling his life story.

Sorkin also revealed what famous Jobs quote the movie will end on. We’re not going to spoil it here, but Sorkin added: "If I can earn that ending then I’ll have written the movie that I want to write."

Here’s also hoping it’s the movie we’ll all want to see as well. As Cinema Blend notes, "Jobs was an innovator who deserves an innovative look into his accomplished life."